Chapter XXV

The siege was unlike any other. Typically, when an army lays siege to a fortress held by their enemies the invading force has one distinct disadvantage; the fortress itself. An army of a few hundred soldiers could hold off legions of thousands if they used their fortifications effectively. Even ten soldiers could hold a castle against invasion. Typically.

In this case, Tovah the geomancer tore open the main gate instantly, and enemy soldiers flooded into the Bastion. The only advantage that the sentinels kept was the fact that in such a narrow space numbers mattered little. The sentinels were professional soldiers, the Berknot Militia were amateurs.

From the watchtowers on the peaks of the nearby mountains sentinels hailed arrows down upon the Berknot Militia. Militiamen climbed the mountains, but reaching the top appeared to be an impossible goal. Every time one got close an arrow lodged itself in his back and he slid back down the mountainside, taking many of his fellows with him.

But the true battle was not the one fought between the mortals on the ground, but rather the one taking place in the air above them. As Tamas lay behind the Bastion’s battlements his legions of daemons swooped and dove overhead. They picked up militiamen in their talons, took them high into the air, and then dropped them again. All the while Adon, the high archangel, wove in between them. With his powerful wings he sliced the daemons in two. Black blood and ashes rained down on the helmets of the soldiers below. Daemons slashed at Adon with their claws or bashed him with their fists, but even their strength did little more than chip at his body in the tiniest ways.

All the while Tamas directed the daemons as best as he could. Only the strongest were to go anywhere near Adon, for only they had a chance of even harming him. The others he sent to break the ranks of the militiamen. Their wooden door shields were useless when daemons twice their size trampled them underfoot.

Under his body, Tamas felt the wall start to shake. A loud crack. Then the wall split open and bricks crumbled away, just before rising into the air again and pelting the sentinels.

Tovah. That damn geomancer seemed just as dangerous as Adon himself. No fortress made of stone could withstand a geomancer’s attack. Tamas would not be able to maintain cover for long.

Tamas leaped from the wall and took hold of the back of one of the fowl daemons as it swooped by. From its back, he drew his sword and pointed at Tovah. The daemon rose high into the air, the wind rippling through its feathers, and dove at the geomancer. Tamas prayed that at such speed Tovah would not see the attack coming in time to react.

No such luck. Tovah looked up, saw Tamas descending at her, and sent a blast of diamond dust their way. Tamas yanked on the daemon’s feathers in hopes of pulling it away from the shards. He wasn’t fast enough to save the creature. The dust tore through the daemon’s right wing. Its dive turned into a free-fall.

As the daemon tumbled out of the sky, Tamas held on with all of his strength. The cold wind whipped around him and pulled tears from his eyes. All the world spun around him. Tamas quickly lost track of just how far they were from the ground. “Rescue me,” he thought, hoping one of the daemons under his control would feel his plea. Then he kicked himself off of the daemon’s back. A leap of blind faith.

He breathed a sigh of relief as his feet landed on something soft long before he could reach the ground. Another winged daemon, covered in feathers that shifted in the light from blue to purple to black and back again. Tamas grabbed hold of the creature and, using its feathers to steer, led it to circle around the Bastion.

Berknot militiamen lobbed tiny stones at him with their slings, or thrust their spears up at him. With the daemon as cover Tamas knew they couldn’t touch him. Though that proved to be little comfort as Adon broke away from the center of the fray and gave chase.

“Faster!” Tamas cried out to the daemon he rode, but no matter how hard the creature beat its wings Adon continued to close the distance between them. “How was it that a being made of stone could move that fast?” Tamas wondered. He’d have been grateful for the opportunity to draw the archangel away from his subjects if it weren’t so close.

Tamas rounded the Bastion again. The sun burned his eyes. In that flash he had an idea. With one hand over his brow he drove the bird to ascend higher and higher into the sky, directly towards the sun. The brightness didn’t seem to bother Adon, but for all the archangel’s speed he seemed to have a problem gaining altitude quickly.

Once Tamas was higher than any of the surrounding mountains and his breath turned to a frosty mist, he searched the battlefield for any sign of Tovah. It didn’t take him long to spot her. The bricks and diamond-dust spinning around her certainly gave the geomancer away. Tamas kicked his heels into the daemon bird’s side and it dove straight at Tovah.

Adon dashed at Tamas in an attempt to intercept him. His great, crystal wing whirled around at Tamas’ head, and Tamas threw up his sword to block the blow. His sword was cut in two, but it had served its purpose. Slowed the bladed wing down just enough for Tamas to duck underneath it and fall with the bird.

He heard Adon grunt in frustration before Adon folded in his wings and fell straight at them. Tamas flattened his body against the bird’s. The bird flattened its wings at its side and pulled in its talons under its belly. Tamas just wished there was some way he could make the two of them fall faster. Those feathers provided too much wind resistance, whereas Adon’s body was sleek and plummeted through the air at a blinding speed.

As they drew closer and closer to the ground, Tamas gripped the bird’s feathers. Tovah didn’t seem to see him coming. Not good. He needed to get her attention. Tamas roared as he drew closer. Tovah snapped her head up. Good. She saw him. And as she squinted, with the sun in her eye, it was clear she had little idea what she was looking at.

The geomancer raised her hand and pointed at Tamas and the bird. A flash of sparkling dust. A stream like shards of glass flying his way. Tamas yanked on the bird’s feathers again. The bird spread its wings and careened away from the stream of diamond dust at the last moment. Adon was not so fortunate.

The diamond dust tore through Adon’s chest and wings, and pieces of the archangel now plummeted to the ground.

Just like Tovah, the Berknot militiamen down below were totally oblivious about what it was that fell towards them. That is, until they saw their comrades crushed under pieces of the fallen archangel. Tovah screamed just before Adon’s torso smashed her into the ground. All the stones that had been orbiting her flew off in every direction. Sentinels and militiamen alike ducked as the shrapnel flew past them.

“Adon has fallen!” Tamas shouted.

“Adon has fallen!” sentinels repeated.

“Adon has fallen!” militiamen repeated, though with fear rather than joy.

“Adon has fallen!”

Soldiers on both sides of the battle repeated the words. Tamas watched from above as the Berknot Militiamen turned and fled at the sound that the Archangel of archangels had been defeated.

“Let them go!” Caleb called out to the sentinels. Immediately the sentinels ceased loosing arrows upon the retreating militiamen.

Tamas landed next to Caleb and Shamira. He waved his hand in a circular motion. In an instant, all of the daemons disappeared, back to the Void.

Was Shamira the only one of his bodyguards still standing? Tamas hung his head for a moment, saying a silent prayer to God for their souls.

Then he turned to Caleb. “We won,” Tamas said. “Did you think it was even possible?”

“I didn’t,” said Caleb. “Truth be told, I thought for sure this would be my last battle.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” said Tamas with a chuckle.

Caleb rolled his sore shoulders. “Well, at least you ensured this will be my last battle against my fellow Arxians. I can’t imagine those fanatics will want to fight again without Adon’s guidance.”

“Are you sure you’re alright with this?”

“With surviving? Sire, how could I not be?”

“I mean with the fact that Adon lies slain,” said Tamas. “The Archangel of archangels, the Fist of God.”

“I don’t know what he was,” Shamira interjected, “But he was clearly not the Archangel of archangels. Torn to pieces by a geomancer’s spell? What manner of archangel would fall so easily?”

“Sir!” called out one of the sentinels from the battlements. “You should come see this!”

Tamas and Caleb raced to the battlements. Peering over the walls, they saw the pieces of Adon’s body just starting to glow. The glow grew brighter and brighter, and the individual parts trembled.

“No…” Tamas said. “No…Please, God, no…”

The broken chunks of Adon’s body slid along the ground, cutting the grass and digging trenches in the dirt as they moved. Soon, every piece had joined back together. The cracks sealed up, and Adon rose to his feet, whole once again.

Shamira was at a loss for words.

“Well, schyte,” said Caleb, pounding his fist on the broken wall.

The hulking crystal body turned to face them, and all on the battlements quaked with dread.

“A dirty trick, demon,” said Adon, his voice as unnervingly soothing as ever.

Tamas called back, “What are you really? You cannot truly be what you claim!” He knew he was saying the words more to convince himself than to convince the sentinels or anyone else at this point.

“Are you so full of doubt that even though you saw me rise from the dead you do not believe?”

“Doubt is my greatest virtue,” said Tamas. No look of recognition for Adon. Had he not heard God say just that to Tamas ten years ago? Or was this angel's face just impossible to read because it was made of stone?

“Your army has fallen,” Caleb shouted. “They fled the moment you fell. I dare say you’ve lost this battle. Looks to me like God favored us, not you.”

Adon looked up at Caleb. His gaze turned the sentinel commander pale in an instant. “I dare say, if I were to fight you all myself you would all die.”

“Y-you want to p-put that to the t-test?” Caleb asked, his hands shaking on the shaft of his spear.

Tamas placed a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “I got this. Adon, I hardly see the point of any of this. Do you not remember what happened the last time someone killed me? The sky tore open, the Firmament shattered, and an endless number of daemons poured, ready to destroy all of Erets. Is that what you want? If you kill me it will happen again.”

It was an empty threat. Tamas knew that, but he was hoping Adon didn't. Without his brother there to command the daemons the legions would return to the Void once Tamas was dead.

“Only if your blood is spilled,” said Adon. “I’d prefer to kill you without spilling blood, but one way or another you must die.” How was it that a messenger of God could threaten with such calm in his voice? “The real question is ‘why do you resist?’ Knowing full well that if you surrender I will slay you while your blood does not stain the ground, why would you fight me and force my hand? If we fight again I will eventually win, but I will be forced to sever your head, pierce your heart, or cut you to ribbons. If you surrender…well, there’s any number of ways I can kill you that won’t cause the end of the world.”

The empty threat had backfired. Tamas turned white.

Adon pointed an accusing finger at the Arxian emperor. “Your very resistance marks you as guilty. If you really did love Erets as you have long professed it would be all too easy to give your life to save it. Instead you struggle to ensure the destruction of this world, just like the demon you truly are.”

“I love this world and all the blessings in it. That’s why I don’t want to die.”

“You claim to have seen Heaven, Tamas,” said Adon. “To have spoken to God in person. No one who has seen Heaven has any reason to fear death. This is how I know you are a liar!”

Tamas heard a murmur go through the sentinels behind him. Caleb shifted uncomfortably. Their faith was wavering, and there was little Tamas could say to make them believe in him again.

Was there no way out of this? Any moment now Adon would stop talking and resume his assault, and when he did anyone who stood against him would die. Even the daemons Tamas conjured seemed to do little harm to this Archangel of archangels. Once Adon was done with the sentinels he’d find Khol hidden inside the Bastion and kill him too.

No. Not Khol. Tamas couldn’t let Adon take Khol. Of all the joys Tamas had been blessed with in this life his children were the greatest. This was what true helplessness felt like.

Adon spread his wings, preparing to take flight again and attack the sentinels. Once the assault resumed Tamas knew there was nothing he could do to stop the onslaught. Even if he somehow managed to break Adon into pieces yet again it would only slow the monster down.

He saw the fear in his subjects’ eyes as they raised their weapons, prepared to fight and die in vain. Pointless! Fighting this foe was truly pointless! Steel weapons would never harm an angel.

“Wait!” Tamas called out. “I would like to offer a deal.”

“I will entertain nothing short of surrender,” said Adon.

“I will surrender,” said Tamas, “But only if my conditions are met.”

“You are hardly in the position to demand conditions,” said Adon, folding his wings on his back again. “But I would hear your request.”

“I will allow you to kill me. Bloodlessly. In return you must swear to me that you will not raise a hand against my children.”